The Radnorshire Militia, later the Royal Radnor Rifles, was an auxiliary regiment reorganised from earlier precursors in the Welsh county of Radnorshire in the 17th century. Primarily intended for home defence, it served in Britain and Ireland through all of Britain's major wars. After a previous short-lived merger it was finally amalgamated into the Royal South Wales Borderers Militia in 1876.
Radnor Trained Bands
The universal obligation to military service in the Shire levy was long established in England and was extended to Wales.Fissel, pp. 178–80, 218.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 12.Hay, pp. 60–1.Holmes, pp. 90–1. King Henry VIII called a 'Great Muster' in 1539, in which William Croft listed all the men between the ages of 16 and 60 in the lordships making up the new county of Radnorshire:Hay, pp. 86–7'Letters and Papers, Miscellaneous, Spring 1539' at British History Online.Hay, pp. 309–12. Town and Lordship of Presteigne: 146 persons, of which 10 were 'horsemen furnished', 22 were 'footmen harnessed' (ie armoured) and 60 were 'able men with gleyves' (Glaives or bills) Lordships of Norton, Knighton and Knucklas: 137, of which 4 horse, 14-foot and 62 glaives Town and Lordships of Radnor (Radnor 'Foren' (foreign) and Radnor Bridge) and Gladestry: 288, of which 13 horse, 36-foot, 80 glaives, 40 'maris pykes' (pikes) and 93 able men without weapons Lordships of Millenethe: 437, of which 13 horse, 36 foot, 164 glaives and 34 pikes Lordships of Gwerthronyon: 262, of which 15 horse, 40 foot, 92 glaives, 29 pikes
The legal basis of the militia was updated by two acts of 1557 covering musters (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 3) and the maintenance of horses and armour (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 2). The county militia was now under the lord lieutenant, assisted by the deputy lieutenants and justices of the peace. The entry into force of these Acts in 1558 is seen as the starting date for the organised Militia of England and Wales.Cruickshank, p. 17.Fissel, pp. 184–5.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 12, 16, 125.Hay, pp. 11–17.Hay, p. 88. Although the militia obligation was universal, it was clearly impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man, so after 1572 the practice was to select a proportion of men for the trained bands, who were mustered for regular training. In April 1588, ahead of the Spanish Armada crisis, Radnorshire mustered 200 'trayned men reduced into bandes under Captaines and soarted with weapons'.Cruickshank, pp. 24–5.Fissel, pp. 178–87. In 1598 the Radnorshire quota was 50 men.Drage, pp. 10–1.
In the 16th century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions. However, the counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than send the trained bandsmen. Radnorshire earned the government's displeasure for recruiting men from prison, but mainly because they were so 'naked and bare' that the royal treasury was forced to fit them out and sent the bill to the county for settlement. Between 1585 and 1602 Radnorshire supplied 530 men for service in Ireland and 75 for France. The men were given three days' 'conduct money' to get to Bristol, the port of embarkation for Ireland. Conduct money was recovered from the government, but replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.Cruickshank, pp. 25–8, 61–2, 66, 92, 126; Appendix 2. As late as 1623, when Ireland was officially at peace, 150 men were levied in Radnorshire and Brecknockshire for service there and sent from Bristol to Waterford, and another 50 from Radnorshire were sent to Plymouth in 1627 (probably for Buckingham's expedition to the Île de Ré).
With the passing of the threat of invasion, the trained bands declined in the early 17th century. Later, King Charles I attempted to reform them into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the king rather than local control.Fissel, pp. 174–8, 190–5.Hay, pp. 97–8. The Radnorshire Trained Bands of 1638 consisted of 200 men, 112 armed with muskets and 88 'Corslets' (body armour, signifying pikemen). They also mustered 25 horse.Radnor Trained Bands at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. For the First Bishops' War in 1639 detachments of trained bandsmen were selected for service from Radnorshire and Herefordshire. The following year Radnorshire was ordered to send 100 men overland to Newcastle upon Tyne for the Second Bishops' War. However, substitution was rife and many of those sent on this unpopular service would have been untrained replacements. These pressed men rioted at Presteigne and the Trained Bands had to step in to prevent them murdering their captain, whom they claimed to be a 'Papist'. The Radnor and Herefordshire Trained Bands then forced the levies to leave the county on their march to Newcastle.Fissel, pp. 208, 262–3.
Civil Wars Control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War. When open war broke out between the King and Parliament, neither side made much use of the trained bands beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops. Most of Wales was under Royalist control for much of the war, and was a recruiting ground for the King's armies.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 198–9.Wedgwood, pp. 28, 38, 41, 65–8, 95., 114, 119–20
Once Parliament had established full control in 1648 it passed new Militia Acts that replaced lords lieutenant with county commissioners appointed by Parliament or the Council of State. At the same time the term 'Trained Band' began to disappear in most counties. Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country.Hay, pp. 99–104. By 1651 the militias of the South Welsh counties appear to have been combined, with the 'South Wales Militia' being ordered to rendezvous at Gloucester to hold the city during the Worcester campaign.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project.
Radnorshire Militia
After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the Militia was re-established in England and Wales by the Militia Act 1661 under the control of the king's lords lieutenant, the men to be selected by ballot. This was popularly seen as the 'Constitutional Force' to counterbalance a 'Standing Army' tainted by association with the New Model Army that had supported Cromwell's military dictatorship.Drage, pp. 12–4.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Grierson, pp. 6–7.Hay, pp. 104–6.Holmes, pp. 94–100.
The militia forces in the Welsh counties were small, and were grouped together under the direction of the Lord President of the Council of Wales.Western, pp. 10, 19, 37. As Lord President, the Duke of Beaufort carried out a tour of inspection of the Welsh militia in 1684, when the Radnorshire units consisted of one Troop of horse and a regiment of three-foot companies 'who gave a good volley'.Drage, p.14.Scott, Tables 3.1.4. and 5.1.4. The 1697 militia returns showed that Radnorshire and Brecknockshire had a combined Regiment of Foot 505 strong under Col Edward Price and a Troop of 48 Horse under Capt Sir Edward Williams.British Library, Egerton MSS 1626, summarised in Hay, p. 134.; Illustrated Naval & Military Magazine, Vol VI, January–June 1887, pp. 317–8; and Camden Miscellany, 1953, Vol 20, pp. 8–10.Drage, p. 15.
Generally the militia declined in the long peace after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.Western, pp. 73–4. Jacobites were numerous among the Welsh Militia, but they did not show their hands during the Risings of 1715 and 1745, and bloodshed was avoided.Owen, Denbigh & Flint, p. 12.
Seven Years' War
Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 re-established county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. There was a property qualification for officers, who were commissioned by the lord lieutenant. An adjutant and drill sergeants were to be provided to each regiment from the Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements would be supplied when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits.Drage, pp. 16–7.Fortescue, Vol II, pp. 288, 299–302.Hay, pp. 136–44.Western, pp. 124–57, 251.
Radnorshire was given a quota of 120 men to raise. Some of the Welsh counties were slow to complete their regiments: the problem was less with the other ranks (ORs) raised by ballot than the shortage of men qualified to be officers, even after the requirements were lowered for Welsh counties. The Radnor 'corps' (it was too small to class as a regiment) was eventually formed at Presteigne and received its arms on 21 February 1763. By then the war had ended with the Treaty of Paris, so the new unit was not actually embodied for service. It did, however, carry out peacetime training in the following years, putting on a field day under the command of the Lord Lieutenant (Edward Harley, 4th Earl of Oxford & Mortimer) for the King's birthday in 1771.Drage, pp. 17–22.Frederick, pp. 293–4.Parkyn.Western, Appendices A & B.Owen, Denbigh & Flint, p. 57.
War of American Independence The militia were called out in 1778 after the outbreak of the War of American Independence, when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 173–4, 295. The Radnorshire Militia were 'embodied' for permanent duty for the first time on 31 March 1778. Later that year an inspecting officer found the Radnorshires to be notably lacking in training, but this was because the corps consisted largely of recruits.Western, p. 408. In the spring of 1779, organised as two companies under the command of Major John Jones, the regiment was marched to Kent to join Coxheath Camp near Maidstone. This was the army's largest training camp, where the militia were exercised as part of a division alongside regular troops while providing a reserve in case of French invasion of South East England. The understrength militia units from small counties (Anglesey, Carnarvon and Rutland) were attached to guard the artillery park of the division, and they were later criticised as having worked as artillery and forgotten their infantry training.Drage, pp. 22–6.Herbert.Western, p. 416.
The Radnorshires were stationed at a militia camp under Lt-Gen Parker at Tiptree in Essex during the summer of 1780, where discipline was so poor that the local parishes complained of bad behaviour and pilfering by men from the camp. Parker had to post a large number of outposts and sentries round the camp to stop men getting out at night. There was also fighting between the Radnorshires and the Cumberland Militia that threatened to spread to other units. Parker called in the commanding officers and demanded that their officers should set an example, but he complained to London that too many officers were absent to vote in that year's General Election.Western, pp. 418, 427. In February 1781 the regiment formed part of the garrison of Landguard Fort, in Suffolk, and in May that year was at Greenwich (then in Kent). By then the time-expired men of 1778 had been replaced by newly balloted men, and the two balloted companies had been supplemented by a 60-strong independent volunteer company.
A peace treaty having been signed, the militia were stood down, the Radnorshires being disembodied on 23 March 1783. From 1784 to 1792 the ballot was used to keep up the numbers of the disembodied militia, but to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually mustered for annual training. Under the command of Maj John Beavan, the Radnorshires were exercised for 28 days in 1787, embodied again in 1788, then carried out annual training in each of the following years.Fortescue, Vol III, pp. 530–1.
French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars